1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to biochemistry and molecular biology. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and compositions for purification of nucleic acid molecules.
2. Description of the Related Art
A variety of protocols have been developed for purification of nucleic acids. One crucial step in many purification protocols involves the separation of nucleic acids from protein and lipid molecules that constitute cells and tissue matrices. Once denatured, proteins are typically highly hydrophobic, while nucleic acids remain hydrophilic. Accordingly, organic solvents, such phenol, have been widely used to solubilize proteins and lipids associated with nucleic acids into an organic phase. However, phenol-based reagents must later be carefully removed from any nucleic acid preparation because phenol is toxic and interferes with downstream processes (such as sequencing or hybridization) that may be used to analyze nucleic acid.